Turn me on with your electric wheel... Electric vehicle startup Rivian raised an astounding $2.5B in its latest funding round — without ever having released a single product. Rivian wants to be the 1st to bring all-electric pickup trucks to roads and it's developing 100K electric delivery vans for Amazon (ETA 2021). Producing all these EVs is capital-intensive — so investors have poured in $5.3B since 2019 (about 1/2 the value of Lyft).
Bezos sweating over $21... Walmart stock jumped 7% on a report that it's shipping a $98/year rival to Amazon Prime this month. Creatively-named Walmart+ perks include: same-day and 2-hour grocery delivery, product deals, and gas discounts. Walmart is the US grocery leader, but half its top-spending families now have Prime memberships. Walmart doesn't want to lose them to Amazon — it's hoping this perk-filled subscription will secure long-term grocery loyalty.